Sonbhadra: A court here on Friday sentenced BJP MLA Ramdular Gond to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for the rape of a girl nine years ago, setting the stage for his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
According to the Representation of the People Act, a lawmaker sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified “from the date of such conviction” and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time.
Ahsan Ullah Khan, the additional district and session judge of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra, also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Gond which would be used in the rape survivor’s rehabilitation.
The rape survivor is now married and the mother of an eight-year-old girl.
Special Public Prosecutor Satyaprakash Tripathi said the court held the MLA from Duddhi assembly seat -- reserved for Scheduled Tribes -- guilty on December 12. The incident took place in 2014 and a case was registered against Gond under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) as well as under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on the complaint of the rape survivor’s brother.
Gond was not an MLA at that time while his wife was a gram pradhan, Tripathi added. The trial in the case started in a POCSO court but was later transferred to the MP-MLA court when Gond was elected as a legislator.